FREEBSD_4_EOL tag, last known index file?

[Mark Andrews]

> >From Erwin Lansing <erwin at FreeBSD.org>, Mon, Jul 16, 2007 at 12:59:50AM +020
> 0:
> > On Sun, Jul 15, 2007 at 03:05:30PM -0700, Jon Dama wrote:
> > > Is there a port index file that corresponds to the FREEBSD_4_EOL tag?
> > > I am unable to rebuild the index from the tagged checkout.
> > 
> > The official INDEX file is no longer available nor supported.  You
> > should be able to build it by "cd /usr/ports; make index'.  If that
> I am aware of that.  The trouble of course is that for whatever reason
> the make index target appears to fail--although I am not entirely
> convinced that this isn't a local problem.  Still I would have expected
> that the tag point to at least be useable, meaning that make index would
> work.
> 
> > doesn't work for you, I'm afraid the only supported configuration is to
> > upgrade to 6.2-RELEASE, which you probably want to do anyway, if not
> > just because security fixes are not applied to earlier versions.
> Strictly speaking the EOL means that the base has been abandoned by the
> security officer and the ports collection, not that it is abandoned entirely.

	4.x has been completely abandoned by the ports collection.
	Within days of EOL for 4.x there were changes made to ports
	make files to remove any vestages of support for FreeBSD 4.

	Support could have gone on using make and perl from the
	ports and perhaps a forced upgrade to xorg.  I can understand
	these as make and perl had been upgraded in 5 and 6, also
	xorg was the default for 5 and 6.

	There were however other changes that were not impacting on
	future developements that were thrown is, as far as I can see,
	just to make life difficult for people wanting to continue
	to use FreeBSD 4.

	Instead of saying "use make and perl from the ports" it was
	we are going to cut off all compatability for 4.

	"make index" was broken a long time before FreeBSD 4 reached
	eol.  You needed the ports make to actually successfully
	run "make index".  Some ports Makefiles were not compatible
	with FreeBSD 4.

	Yes.  This breakage had been reported along with patches
	to fix the breakage so that "make index" would work with
	the system make from FreeBSD 4.  These bugs were never
	addressed despite being reported months before FreeBSD 4
	reached eol.

	make-20050524       Berkeley make, back-ported to FreeBSD 4.x

	Mark
   
> People with commit access may still make contributions into RELENG_4...
> 
> Anyways I'm only trying to act within the constraints that I've been given.
> My mandate does not include upgrading to RELENG_6 so your advice is not
> immediately useful.
> 
> What I am interested in hearing is confirmation that the EOL tag works to
> the extent it was intended to work...
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-- 
Mark Andrews, ISC
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark_Andrews at isc.org